Current Sports The 50 Highest-Paid Athletes

List of the highest paid athletes in the world, professional athletes who make the most money annually. This is Forbes annual list of the highest-paid professional athletes, updated for 2016 (reflecting top 2015 earning), to help you figure out the current highest paid athlete. Forbes wealthiest athletes list uses salaries, bonuses, prize money, appearance fees, licensing deals, and endorsement contracts to determine which athletes earned the most during the previous year. (Taxes and fees paid to representatives like agents are not factored in.)

So who are the highest paid athletes? This list includes elite athletes from all sports - from Cristiano Ronaldo in soccer to boxing sensation, Manny Pacquiao. The athletes on this list play 11 different sports and the most highly paid athletes tend to be baseball players. Americans dominate the list, but there are athletes from 23 different countries in the top 100. Nike has sponsorship deals with at least 75% of the most highly paid athletes in the world. The deals range from a $10,000 baseball glove deal to $20 million a year players like LeBron James and Tiger Woods, who are the faces behind massive product launches, earning them spots on this list as the best paid athlete in the world.

Who's the highest paid athlete and the highest paid sportsman? For more sports rumors and athlete trades gossip, visit this list of sports news sites.